14 Actionable Tips To Encourage Customers To Share Brand Experiences
There are many reasons why you should encourage customers to share brand experiences. It’s an effective solution to lots of marketing challenges. For example:
- Raising Awareness
- Spreading Word-of-Mouth
- Influencing Purchase Decisions & Brand Perceptions
- Creating User-Generated Content (UGC), which millennials find 35% more memorable than mainstream content and 50% more trustworthy
Consider it from your own perspective as a consumer; are you more, or less likely to take an action after a recommendation from a friend? As opposed to seeing an ad or piece of branded content?
14 Actionable Tips To Encourage Customers To Share Brand Experiences
Check out Popdeem’s 14 ideas you can use to encourage customers to share brand experiences on social media, backed-up with real-world examples.
#1 Geofilters
Snapchat Geofilters are a great way to add elements of interactivity to social posts, which people love to share! Check out the example below from W Hotels.
The price of an on-demand geofilter depends on the size of your geofence and how long you want it to run for, but on average, it’s reported to cost about $5 a day for 20,000 square feet. (Buffer, 2017)
Instagram geostickers are similar to Snapchat geofilters, but as of November 2017, Instagram has yet to roll out sponsored geostickers.
Source: Skift.com
#2 Location Listings
Just in case you haven’t done it already — make sure you’ve listed your business locations on social networks, especially Instagram! That way, people can geotag their photos — making it easy for consumers to discover more UGC about your brand.
Also, did you know that 59% of millennials claim that they use UGC to inform their purchase decisions about major electronics? That’s followed by cars (54%), major appliances (53%), mobile phones (46%), hotels (45%), and travel plans (40%).
#3 Contests
Sometimes, we all need a little push. Contests can motivate customers to share something they might not have thought of sharing before!
For example, in Starbucks’ #WhiteCupContest campaign, customers had to submit their cup design on social media to enter. The prize was to have their design on a limited edition reusable cup.
Looking for Facebook contest ideas? Check out this post.
#4 Social CTAs In The Customer Journey
Include Call-to-Actions to share on social on in-store materials, packaging, social content, email marketing, and in your loyalty program. Prompts like this will plant the seed of thought and inspire people to post.
Example: Kate Spade Dressing Room Hashtag
#5 Instagram-ability
If you give customers a gorgeous setting, good lighting, and aesthetically pleasing products — they’ll be more likely to capture and share their experiences on social media.
An example of a brand that excels at this is The Grounds of Alexandria in Australia.
#6 Surprise & Delight
Everyone loves surprises! When brands surprise and delight their customers, it makes them feel special and improve brand perceptions. Mastercard and Westjet frequently surprise and delight their customers.
#7 Social Rewards
Social rewards are similar to loyalty rewards, where businesses encourage repeat purchases, e.g. if you buy 9 coffees, you get a 10th free. Whereas with social rewards, businesses can encourage brand advocacy behavior on social media, e.g. if you check-in on Facebook or share a photo on Instagram, you’ll receive a discount off your next purchase.
Social rewards are a great way to encourage customers to share brand experiences. They also help foster customer loyalty.
Did you know that 88% of Americans say they would like some sort of incentive or reward for sharing a product via social media or email? This number jumps to 95% among 18–35-year-olds.
Here’s a short video demonstrating how our social rewards work.
#8 Engagement
From a customer’s perspective, if they’ve shared a positive post about your brand you should acknowledge it and thank them for it! That way you’re encouraging the behavior, building relationships with the brand, and maybe encouraging other users to follow suit. It’s always nice to show appreciation.
#9 Showcase Customer Content
Another way to engage with customers who share brand experiences is by showcasing their content! You can add a photostream of customer-generated photos to your website, or screens in-store. Even just regramming a photo can make a customer’s day and entice other users to share a picture too. But make sure the quality of the content fits with your brand and that you get permission to share.
Check out this example from GoPro, who win at showcasing customer content with their GoPro Awards.
#10 Follow Ups
Another way to encourage customers to share brand experiences is by clever follow-ups. For example, if you sell online you can email users who visited the ‘thank-you-for-your-order’ URL. This email should include a clear CTA for customers to share brand experiences on social media. For even better results, include an incentive in the email for extra motivation.
Here’s a light example from ASOS at the end of a ‘Thank You For Your Order’ email.
#11 Support Causes & Charities
If you support causes and charities, you can increase the likelihood of your customers to share brand experiences. Especially if you make them feel involved in it.
Remember the ice-bucket challenge? 84% of people say that supporting causes is the most compelling reason to share something on social media. (New York Times Consumer Insight Group)
You can use charity donations as a reward type with Popdeem’s social rewards. So you can offer to donate 50c to a charity when a customer shares a positive Tweet, Facebook, or Instagram post about your brand.
#12 Leverage Trends
If people are already talking about something online, find a way to become part of the conversation by leveraging trends.
The example below is Spotify’s Stranger Things ‘Easter Egg’ feature on their platform before the launch of season 2. Another example comes from the Pokemon Go craze in 2016, where businesses got involved in the conversation.
#13 Brand Ambassador Programs
Another way to encourage customers to share brand experiences is by creating a brand ambassador program. These programs are similar to social rewards, except they tend to be smaller, controlled, exclusive groups that receive rewards or benefits in exchange for talking about your brand.
For example, Kung Fu Tea runs a brand ambassadorship program. Kung Fu Tea ambassadors can earn free products, merchandise, access to VIP events, and discount codes for their audiences.
#14 Happy Customers (Shocker!)
Now our final tip may seem obvious, but it’s important to mention. The quality of your products and services have a big impact on what’s said about your brand online. Ultimately, if your customers are not happy with your product or service, they will not share positive brand experiences on social media.
Unfortunately, consumers who experience a negative interaction with a brand are 50% more likely to tell someone about it, versus if it was a positive interaction (45% vs 30%) respectively. (Zendesk)
So the key here is to consistently strive for high customer service and satisfaction.
Conclusion
So that is the end of Popdeem’s 14 tips. Did we miss any? If you’ve any other tips/ideas, share them in the comments section.
If you’d like to see how you can use Popdeem to encourage customers to share brand experiences through the activities discussed in this post, like Social Rewards, Brand Ambassador Programs, Contests, etc. feel free to request a free Popdeem demo here.
Don’t forget to 👏🏻!
This post was first published on The Social Insider, subscribe for more.
